Since the Australians occupied Qiong, he actually invested in the freight business on the Nandu River and the freight business of Haikou Port. Money is rolling in. In this case, whether the Australian recruits or not, it has nothing to do with him.

But since the Australians arrived in Qiongshan, because he had an old relationship with the Australians, and the People's Committee of Civil Affairs had always had the intention of co-opting him as a bridge between the gentry and the gentry, Hai Shuzu gradually became the leader of the gentry in Qiongshan, and he came forward to talk to Liu Xiang about many negotiations.

Since the big gentry regarded him as their backbone, it was inconvenient for him to refuse, so he invited everyone to his home to discuss matters.

"The grain is rented out, and everyone is running out, how can I pay the summer and autumn levies." Everyone cried one after another, "If there is a disaster and no one cultivates the land, what will I pay for food?"

"I heard that Australians still need the tax system and want the big families to produce more grain, do the Australians still want us as the foundation of the imperial court? Could it be that they want to share the world with the mud tuǐzi? The owner is the foundation of the world, and if we are defeated, you will have to talk to them about who pays them food. ”

The small flower hall of Haishu's ancestral house is crowded with the big gentry of Qiongshan County, and some of them are local Xiucai and other scholars, although the family does not have a few acres of land, but it is quite the same as the big families I heard that the Australians in Lingao have abolished the two stone grains that Xiucai is exempt from, which is not only an economic problem, but also a face problem for Xiucai. Although the news has not yet been confirmed, Xiucai in Qiongshan County is still in a panic.

"Master Hai, you can't let the Australian chiefs mess around, we are all our own people, the imperial court has always treated the owners and scholars preferentially, not to mention this dynasty, that is, the former Yuan and the former Song Dynasty are like this, they don't claim to be descendants of the Great Song Dynasty, when did the Great Song Dynasty make this trouble."

Hai Shuzu listened to the quarrel of a group of people with great self-cultivation, and to be honest, he didn't have any feelings about this set of remarks, since it had nothing to do with his own interests, he naturally didn't have any personal feelings.

But since he wants to "benefit the township", of course, it is inconvenient for Hai Shuzu to blindly refuse. He knew that Liu Xiang's main concern at the moment was actually the food problem, and as long as the food problem could be solved, "Director Liu" would be much easier to talk about.

The Hai family's grain stock is not much, and the heaven and earth will contract his land, and the land rent handed over to him according to the contract is settled with grain circulation coupons. With this kind of negotiable voucher, he can buy all kinds of Australian goods in the local "Wanyou" merchants and cooperative businesses in Qiongshan, and then sell them to get more profits, so he is not resistant to buying surplus grain.

After everyone's speeches came to an end, he said: "Ladies and gentlemen, it is difficult for students to guess what the leaders think, but in the students' humble opinion, the first priority of Australians is food ......."

Now everyone's faces are hard to look at.

Food, of course. China's traditional agricultural landlords have hoarded grain as one of the means of preserving wealth - on the one hand, because it is not easy to turn grain into an era of underdeveloped commodity economy, and on the other hand, grain is actually the main "hard currency" in the countryside. Especially in areas like Hainan Island, where the commodity economy is underdeveloped and the scale of circulation is very small, grain is not only used as a wage for long-term workers, but also plays an important role in rural usury. In the years of famine, grain became an important tool for stealing land and slaves.

Asking the big families to take out grain is tantamount to ripping off their hearts. And after clearing the acres of land, the big gentry have relied on the privileges and the various exemptions brought by ** have been written off, the original very low burden is bound to increase greatly in the summer and autumn, many people were originally dissatisfied with this, and now they heard that they want food, and they feel more and more unacceptable, and everyone will stand up, and some people will start to cry poor again, saying that when they raised disaster relief food, they have reluctantly taken out a lot of food, and now the family can only drink gruel.

For a while, the flower hall was noisy, and it was almost impossible to speak.

Hai Shuzu waved his hands and smiled bitterly: "Ladies and gentlemen, what is the use of you going to say these words to the leaders, and telling the students?" The students don't want a grain from you."

The flower hall suddenly fell silent, of course the Hai family is easy to talk, but the Australians are very difficult to talk. And they have also seen the methods they used to suppress bandits and clear their townships in Qiongshan, they are pervasive and decisive in killing, and they will never forgive when they should kill, but they will not kill indiscriminately.

Thinking of the scene when the tenants were cleared more than ten days ago, many people couldn't help but shrink their necks again, and the arrogance of the original crowd suddenly subsided, and most people still know the current affairs: in the current situation, at least within ten years, there is no sign that the Ming Dynasty has returned to Qiongzhou, and the Australians are the "emperors" of Hainan Island.

Half a month ago, after letting everyone's sons-in-law go to Lingao to "visit and study", I learned more about the real Liliang of Australians from their mouths, and it also had a subtle "calming" effect on the big gentlemen.

Hai Shuzu saw that the people were no longer talking, so he conveyed the meaning that Liu Xiang wanted him to convey when he talked to him. A few days ago, Liu Xiang had made an appointment with him to meet him alone, and he had a deep conversation with him for several hours on the issue of land and food, and Hai Shuzu fully understood the chief's intentions.

Liu Xiang's policies were relatively moderate. He knew that if he blindly resisted the policies of the Executive Committee, it would not end well. After all, "righteousness" and "national policy" are two great hats, and he will definitely not be able to bear it.

Fortunately, Secretary of State Ma has two main objectives: food and land intensification.

As long as this goal is achieved to a certain extent, there is enough room for maneuver, after all, Ma Qianzhuo and Ye Yuming's jī into the countryside policy is also opposed by many people.

He thought about it for a long time and then came up with a new solution. Of course, it depends on whether the local big families "know each other". Liu Xiang felt that after the previous stage of the law and order war and the work of clearing the fields, they should know that Shijie was different.

"People, the chiefs have already been transported to Lingao, and it is absolutely impossible for them to come back. Besides, the tenant is not a slave of your family, and if you recruit tenants, you are allowed to quit the tenants, even if it is the court of the Ming Dynasty, is this right? Ancestor Haishu interrupted everyone's thoughts with a few words.

There was a sigh of regret from the crowd. That's right. In this matter, Australians can't talk about being unreasonable, although there is a bit of a strong order when clearing debts, but everyone knows that there is nothing unfair about Australians doing this.

An old man interjected in fear: "Then, what about this land, most of the land has been abandoned at home!" ”

For a while, many people shouted again. Hai Shuzu waved his hand unhurriedly and said: "Earth, since everyone is short of races, you can contract it to the Heaven and Earth Society to plant."

These words, like a piece of ice thrown into a hot oil pot, began with a moment of silence, and then many people scrambled to speak: some questioned, some inquired, and some panicked, simply called by heaven and earth, and could not say why.

Heaven and Earth Society's activities in Qiongshan have been carried out for a stage, in addition to directly contracting land, Heaven and Earth will also support small and medium-sized landlords and rich peasants in the countryside, and use the "Australian Agricultural Law" to guide the various actions of farming have indeed aroused the interest of the large gentlemen, especially the Hai Shuzu in front of him, that is, all the land has been contracted to the "Heaven and Earth Society" to plant, although there has been no harvest yet, but the growth of crops is indeed much stronger than the general field, if it is not for the typhoon, there will definitely be a very haode harvest.

However, it is too bold to completely contract the fields to the Australians to plant, they are no better than those small and medium-sized landlords and yeoman farmers, and the Hai family has only 100 acres of land in their hands, and the level of small landlords is actually enough for most of the large households gathered here have more than 500 acres of land, and there are more than a dozen households as many as several thousand acres. Many people are worried, what if the land is really given to the Heaven and Earth Society, what should I do if it is dark? You must know that the Heaven and Earth Society is not a tenant who is oppressed by others, but a genuine "Australian government".

Hai Shuzu waited for this chaos to pass for a while, and then said: "There is only one way for students. As for the credit of Australians: they have never broken their promises so far. Do things above board, with the shallow view of students, they will never do things that are ignorant of others. As he spoke, he glanced at everyone again, and the faces of a few gentlemen suddenly looked difficult to look atˉ using "investment" to blacken small landlords and self-cultivated farmers without credit, they didn't do it, "Besides, contracting to Tiandi will not sell land, you are willing to contract for one year, three years, five years, or even ten years or eight years." Hai Shuzu said and smiled, "With the knowledge of students, since the Qingzhang Tianmu, Australians are going to implement new taxes, so it is better to simply contract it to Heaven and Earth to save worry." ”

These words coerced and touched the hearts of a few people, and a few people asked about the specific practice of contracting land and the regulations on the sharing of land between the two parties.

The land service of Tiandihui is divided into two parts, one is similar to that of Wanjia Brothers in Lingao, which mainly provides improved varieties and jishu services, and does not directly participate in the production and operation activities of landlords; The harvest goes to the landowner, but the Jishu service fee and material fee are paid to the Heaven and Earth Society. The land levy is also paid by the landowner himself.

The second is the contract system, which is generally aimed at large areas of land, such as Xuetian and Haishuzu in various counties, who are not interested in managing the land themselves. Ye Yuming divided such land into different sharing standards according to the fertility of the fields, water conservancy facilities and the number of long-term tenants attached to it. From the lowest 55% to the highest 73% of the Tiandihui fee!.